We only need your ideas, if you have an understanding of what empowr is actually trying to do, and what obstacles it's facing. If you're just joining the discussion, you might want to read the earlier posts (links below) before reading this.

A summary of the discussion thus far:

1. First, we discussed that, as a result of globalization and automation, jobs are disappearing -- and this trend is gaining momentum as software and computers get more powerful and get cheaper by the year.

2. Then, we discussed that history tells us that when people lose their jobs in big numbers, dictators, strongmen and fascists seem attractive as leaders...

… and the result can be an erosion of the democratic institutions that took centuries, bloodshed and sacrifice to achieve.

A. Has economics as its core value, not simply social communications, like most other social media products;

B.Is meant to scale up to serve as many (billions) of customers as needed, by providing a platform for everyone to help each other (as opposed to simply giving a limited number of “jobs” to a few people);

C.doesn’t accept investor capital, so that there is never an obstacle to maximizing profits to its citizens; and

D.democratic – meaning leaders elected by its citizens (as opposed to anyone else) – so that it can stand the test of time, and keep changing and improving based on the needs of its citizens.

There is, however, a very big conflict - a potentially fatal obstacle - in our path.

This obstacle has to do with how, in network applications of the sort that empowr is, there can only be one successful company.

The companies that are late to getting to a critical mass of players will not survive…

… in the same manner that there is no longer any real competition for Google Search, Facebook or YouTube within their core functionality.

Understanding the “Network Effect”

First, let’s understand the concept and agree on terminology.

Then, we’ll need to discuss what empowr must do, if it is to overcome this very significant and existential challenge.

Let’s get started.

Just a few months.

That’s all it took to block an industry giant from gaining control of the entire Japanese market.

Yahoo had lusted after the Japanese auction market for a long time, while planning its strategy of attack. Despite a great deal of skepticism on whether the Japanese would even be interested in online auctions, Yahoo assigned their best people to develop the site. At the same time, the leading force in the online auction industry, eBay, was also plotting its entry into the Japanese market. As the development teams in each company worked at a feverish pace, everybody knew that the first player on the scene would have a distinct advantage.

In September 1999, Yahoo Japan launched its auction site, beating eBay to the market by only a few months. This advantage resulted in Yahoo Japan’s essentially completely shutting eBay out of the Japanese market.

When the CEO of Yahoo Japan, Masahiro Inoue, was asked why being first to the market was so critical, he answered, “We knew catching up with a front-runner is hard because, in auctions, more buyers bring more sellers.”

The principal that Mr. Inoue stated above, often referred to as the “first-mover advantage,” is one that applies far beyond the online auction market. Being the first to successfully enter a market has always been important to business. But with the introduction of network technology, the importance of being the “first mover” has been elevated to existential levels for businesses.

This is to a large degree a result of the fact that Mr. Inoue states very clearly: more buyers bring more sellers who, in turn, attract more buyers, creating an upward-accelerating phenomenon that means, within only a few months, competitors to that first-mover platform find it nearly impossible to enter the market or survive. Whether discussing online auctions or any other online business, the principle remains the same.

Network technology amplifies the first-mover advantage through something called “The Network Effect.” I can feel some readers’ eyes glossing over as I type this, so let me assure you up front that I’m going to keep this explanation as short and sweet as possible.

The Network Effect essentially states that as more “nodes” (or users) connect to a network, the value of the network (to its customers, shareholders, and other stakeholders) goes up exponentially as opposed to linearly:

Think of it like this:

If, at one point, you owned the only telephone in the world, it would be pretty much useless because there would be nobody else to talk to.

But when somebody else gets a telephone, all of a sudden your phone is worth a whole hell of a lot more, because now you have somebody to talk to (other than yourself).

As more people and businesses get phones, the value of having a phone goes up, as does the value of the entire telephone network.

Eventually, everybody wants and needs a telephone, because there are so many people and businesses to talk to. Like with any type of network, as each new person connects to the network, the value provided by the network goes up exponentially, not linearly.

I’ll give one more quick example, just to make sure you understand. If you already get it (or just plain don’t care), feel free to skip it.

Way back in the days when the operating system field wasn’t completely dominated by the kingdoms of Microsoft and Apple, International Business Machines (IBM) was contending with Microsoft in the personal computer operating system market. Having once been partners on the development of a new operating system called OS/2, the competition between the two companies was particularly fierce. While Microsoft and its operating system, Windows, enjoyed a number of advantages over IBM and OS/2, two key factors led primarily to Microsoft ultimately winning the war:

1.Microsoft got Windows preloaded on many thousands of personal computers. This put Windows at a distinct advantage over IBM’s OS/2, which had to be purchased separately.

2.Because of that, many more software developers began to create programs for Microsoft’s Windows operating system. This meant that users who had Windows gained access to a much greater variety of programs.

If you look at the two factors individually, they each appear important but not necessarily critical. However, if you put them together, you see how powerful a combination they make:

Developers wanted their programs to be bought by as many consumers as possible, and since computers were coming preloaded with Windows, it made more sense for developers to design their programs for Windows machines.

And consumers wanted to be able to use as many programs as possible, so it made sense for them to choose Windows because it had more programs built for it.

The operating system with more programs (Windows) attracted more consumers; and the one with more consumers (Windows) attracted more developers and programs.

Fast forward a couple of decades, through many repeats of this cycle, and now almost nobody knows what OS/2 is or was, but nearly everybody who has ever used a computer knows about Microsoft Windows.

empowr and the Network Effect

Now, let’s move on to why the Network Effect poses such a frightening threat to empowr; and also, why it also poses such an incredible opportunity for mankind.

empowr is the first platform in existence that helps its members easily establish, manage and monetize 2-way (reciprocal) economic relationships.

By using empowr, you’re building for yourself an asset with long-term monetary value: a network of people that you can trust to help you earn.

In just 12-24 months from now, many millions (probably billions) of people will have built personal networks, like the one you’re building on empowr…

One company will have a complete monopoly on this approach.

As you know, if that company is empowr:

The platform’s profits will flow to the platform’s users, and control of the platform will belong to the people.

Hi Johnny,One of the biggest issues at the moment, which I am sure that you and others are aware of, is the legitimacy of the marketplace. First, there are many substandard products and services being listed (or, more commonly,people are listing non-existent products because they are encouraged very highly to "get involved" in the marketplace").Second, people are buying, then sponsoring, then often sponsoring again... there rarely appears to be an end user for goods and services. Ultimately this dissuades genuine sellers from getting involved because it seems that they'll never actually sell something; additionally it ends up causing more work in the form of disputes for Success Coaches and the empowr dispute admin to deal with.

I would suggest the following: - ensuring that whomever is moderating the marketplace listings (SCs were informed a number of months ago that they were to stop) upholds the standards which were set up for the community. This will ensure that products and services with actual value are being promoted, and if people actually buy and have confidence in the marketplace then it oils the wheels of our economy.- sponsoring needs to be rethought, because although "money is going round",it is not actually going anywhere in many instances. It goes round and round until the sponsor time ends or someone marks the item as unpaid.- is the 5% penalty still being applied for unpaid items? I haven't seen this in action, and I have had to mark one or two items as unpaid because the original seller had no idea who finally bought the product.

I've recently been reading about our rivals in electronic marketplaces - Amazon/eBay/Etsy etc. and I think that if we get a hold of our marketplace and it works the way we all know it should, I am sure that we could blow them all away. Ultimately, this will be the making of our economy!

First of all, it is GREAT to hear from you, Martin. We all miss you at the empowr offices! You will need to come visit us soon.
I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments on the marketplace. Within the next few days, our focus on the marketplace will intensify and stay intensified, finally... it has been long overdue. More on that topic soon...
I will ensure your comments, above, are carefully read by everyone involved on this end. Thanks again!

Is there or can there be a way that we can delete our ads ( and this not count toward quota) I love helping people on the platform, and as I have told empowians here I am just a user I only know by pushing buttons and completing the task myself. I done this with an Ad and named it "Test" after I had finished I deleted it, but the next day I woke up and had notifications that people had bid on it, I have just had to message this person to make it unpaid, but in doing that this person also gets an unpaid discredited towards their name. This doesn't seem to fair all around.
I understand we are ironing things out around here, and rewriting the algorithms can be lengthy and expensive but the marketplace is where the economy is built

Simply make the marketplace more user friendly. 1. Sellers should have a delete button so buyers do not have to go through pages of old items to find what they want.2. Sellers should have a reserve amount of funds which is already actually established by 90 day maturity so why not let sellers be credited for sales instantly. Any disputes could be taken from funds that are maturing.3. Buyer accountability, buyers should not be able to cancel sales simply because they no longer "want" the product.Buyers should only be allowed so many disputes per month. Can I be blunt here? While I can not speak for everyone else, I watch my own sales 97 out of 100 cancelled and buyers still get network credit making it impossible for me to close the circle and the 3 that are not, in pending for eternity. This is not encouraging me to sell and regarding purchasing, it's no fun jumping through so many hoops to complete a sale because of the slowness of the marketplace marking item received and placing feedback one item at a time is a real pain. I think personally a few revisions to the marketplace and it would be hopping again and don't see these revisions as costing the community a lot of funds to do.

I wholeheartedly agree with you on the 'delete' button Deborah! I Sponsored items a year ago, and they NEVER disappear. If I list/sell them for years on end, the original Seller may not even have the item anymore, or that Seller may no longer be active!! There is no way to get rid of unwanted sale items or unwanted Sponsored items. One other thing while we are on 'delete', how about people who have been deleted from Empowr....is there any way to get them off of your fan/friend list??

JC--I think we should focus on bringing in more social media influencers onto the empowr platform. empowr should entice these heavy hitters with enormous social media following on twitter, facebook, snapchat, intagram, google+, etc. They need to know why empowr is more profitable for them if they start using this platform instead. These influencers have more reach, fanbases, and networks. Adding more buttons besides facebook and twitter could also help in this endeavor. Adding achievement badges is a good thing, which I know you guys are working hard on. Improving accelerated matured cash outs for everybody and paying people on time would also motivate and encourage people more because while everyone knows empowr is a long-term investment, people need cash in the short-term as well to stay motivated to using the platform every single day.

I am looking forward to all the changes and updates just in the month of July alone! :) July is my birthday month! I wish empowr will monopolize the market because they have a great mission and I am very proud of my business and I wish everyone else would be too. I thank everyone behind the scenes of empowr for their continual hard work!! We should all prepare for war!!! :)

Well as I expected and mentioned in my previous post, empowr really needs to get hold of its customers and of course needs to attract new customers so as to achieve its mission. Platform needs some touch-ups and as a citizen and with daily struggles I have posted quite a few of the comments regarding such amendments in my comments on previous posts but nothing of help. I think JC reads first few comments, senator reads and comments a couple of them and the SCs do reply to few of them. That clearly states that its just a one-way communication but all we need is "discussion". Let me make it clear whether any of you read it or not...and if you read and discuss further, of course we will get some sort of answer for those issues.

* Empowr is making too much changes drastically that neither the SCs nor the experienced citizens never follow it and how can we expect a new citizen to even understand the program

* Bots/cheaters must be addressed immediately and limitation is not the useful weapon. We need to confirm whether the worker is human or machine. Lets say empowr places a word with running letters and that must be entered as a captcha to close the circle. Of course this would be some extra work but if empowr can pay that extra amount than spending on those useless nuts or bots. If limitation is the only way as you think, if a citizen can do his daily work for 4-5 hours then a bot can do it in just 1 hour and as you have limited with shares if the same citizen can do his work for 2 hours then ultimately the bots will do it in just 30 minutes and go about his business. Is there any profit for us?

* SCs need some refreshment of thoughts on the new platform...still they do not know the difference between the older platform and the new one...I have seen many comments here and there with illiterate comments. So the new citizens must be addressed in a special manner like...a demo platform showing what else they can do to earn and all.

* Marketplace must be utilized genuinely for the welfare of empowr... (reiterated umpteen times on my comments previously).

* Pornography must be avoided. Sounds silly??? of course not...some cultures and communities or not even everybody digest those sort of things...some communities teach it as a sin and of course such persons and mostly females would quit when they see such things or may be worried to use empowr at home thinking of what their parents may feel. I too find it hard to work when my wife or kid around. Reporting abuses never work better for community because even the SCs may not audit such vulgar.

* Finally, last but not the least...There are hundreds of profiles who worked for just 1-2 months and left because, internet is never cheaper, put all their effort and time but no earning and when they were asked to pay fee they quit thinking its not theirs' with their dreams shattering. Pay first and earn next is the concept of all online businesses and no wonder there wont be any difference against empowr as well. To attract customers, for their effort and time they spent, they should be paid at least a few bucks to boost them to work towards a bigger growth and side by side empowr will also grow. I personally referred quite a few of my friends and when I mentioned about the fee part they turned their attention so the strategy must be "Earn First, Pay Next". Let us earn and pay from our own earning.

To achieve this,

* Accelerated matured cash out alone may not be enough. We need to give them some magic perks in the beginning itself...may be a few bucks but would greatly help them to root stronger towards empowr's mission.

* Payments options need a variety.

* Outside adverts could be utilized as extra bonus for citizens to click and earn

* Platform must be user-friendly, when I say this, I have requested a few modifications in my last comments...from a view point of a real citizen and that would enable all citizens

I read your post and totally agree on the part of outside adsverts to click and earn from, i have given that proposal to my SC but he meant that it would not benfit niether us nor the advetiser wich i think it would and that market is huge with a lot of money in it.

Hello JC, I've been following the series closely but i apologize is my ideas don't result in something productive or they are not viable:1-) I don't know the legal implications of this but due the facts the empowr is an organization that returns 97% of its revenue back to the people, Empowr can be considered as an NGO which I don't know about other countries's legislation but in mine the media has to give them free tv and radio spaces to announce their activities in a way that they are more effective helping people, so right there we would have free publicity to get to numerous people that can join empowr.

2-) I agree with Martin, I understand that the unpaid item option protects people but it also gives a kind of free pass to play around in the marketplace without consequences and taking away items from people that maybe genuinely interested in buying, and the sponsor option some times can be so long that it lasts 60 days with your item hold just to find out people will mark it as unpaid and you have to start everything again, so maybe is better to introduce like dealership to dealership model when I sell you my car but to an under the market price for you to get some profits and everybody wins if they agree in something

I hope my ideas are useful and if they are not, I apologize, but I trust you guys you will take the best decisions in order to achieve our goal of helping half of population to earn 25$ for 2025, besides we fight for the right cause so that guarantee us success at the end no matter what difficulties we find in our road.

Thanks for making the post very clear with similar examples that were developed and helping us to take them as a direction. Just as how Japanese market taken the step up while studying the competitors and Microsoft gained continuous momentum by preloading it's version on many personal computers,

We in 'empowr' may need to focus on keeping our system very strong and to take this greatest opportunity called 'empowr to millions who are in a great need of finding it.

I have these proposals to my knowledge and hoping this can make some difference as we work out together.

1) Having multiple empowr branches in different locations with immediate support and better ticketing system. 2) Having at least one account recovery option for higher power level citizens who may have involved in violation activities by any chance. 3) Having increased empowr knowledge leaders in multiple locations, who can share this greatest opportunity 'empowr' to many others by conducting local seminars OR meetings in their places. There are many people waiting for opportunities, just imagine how they can feel if they were given this best platform. It may not be difficult to reach this world by making some paper advertisements, pamphlets OR any kind of social announcements. We can just start up as a small group in our locations, and empowr leaders may join up our groups occasionally.

I don't have much to say... There is one big fat reason why a lot of people will not stick around or share empowr and that's because getting some form of cash in hand takes way to long to achieve and by then people start thinking that it is a scam ,especially when we are asked to pay for ad fees before cashing out anything ..

Remember most people joined with the intention of working for 90 days and then being able to cash out.. ( at least that's the question I've seen asked the most)" Did you cash out after 90 days? " And that's when the majority of people leave.

If empowr can figure out how to get those that are providing valuable contents and services to the community more cash in their hands at a reasonable time then we will see a big difference..

Ainsley,
Thank you for your comment, because it reminds me- Remove the "90 day" from the title and just call it mature earnings. You are right a lot of people think they are going to have the entire balance in hand at the 91st day. Not a good way to meet a new client, having to explain how it really works and they become irate, saying I just want My money that I earned YOU are stealing from me. Even if you can smooth it over, once someone gets negative, it poisons the relationship and can take a lot to repair it.

Good points Ainsley and Kelly.
And that's a very interesting approach, Kelly -- removing "90 day" from the title -- especially now (with the launch of accelerated mature cash outs). That might force people to dig in deeper (as in, God forbid, watch the video on the topic) and educate themselves to see how it really works.
Thanks for the idea -- we'll be thinking about that...

Realy like to know if I are up for deletion of my acc at empowr.I realy love this community and its people.I know I posted a few posts about some platforms I am part of but did not know it will effect my acc.I would ask empowr if it will be possible to bring in a bitcoinwallet for the people to also create accounts and earn in bitcoin.Bitcoins are good invest on moment. Empowr can also offer the community to get a e- coin debid card to invest their $ in and then draw in Rands at any atm.I can give empowr the detail to have the powr in doing that.The community would love that.I got some links I would love to share but first want empowr to give me some sort of permission to do so.( would like feedback on that please) Thanks to the people I this community to keep me happy and exited.Also to empowr,your great. Hugo van Rooyen

Whenever I try to link people to Empowr the application freezes and mind you my phone is 2gb RAM and 2gb octacore yet it couldn't run the app with ease.

I came with the target mindset of bringing a hundred daily minimum, but I couldn't place links to get people to join.

I have been bring people for some time now yet my account reads zero, I couldn't sponsor an advert.

I'm not upto a month with Empowr but I've met with series of hiccups which are really discouraging. I feel that we can getthe platform high if we consistently check the quality of the platform.

There should be a link to various other social platforms in the POST Section, ability to share external makes if even greater fun to use.

True business is what you do that gives you both money and pleasure. When there is money and no pleasure it's called boredom. This platform need not to be boring.

I worked hard yet it's very hard to increase in power. Ability to share what is on Empowr to the outside world, in blogs and other social media should also be used to increase in power. Capacity to bring much crowd that will stay with Empowr is already a kind of power. When big players come in and with their traffic but find it difficult to increase in power on the strength of their marketing skills then where is the equality. Reward should be commensurate with Labour. I have over 20,000 followers on Facebook alone and they listen to me.

How will it make more economic growth for me by bringing them in terms of power and how will you make it easier to bring them

I'm sorry for the frustration you have felt, Sam. I agree that the platform needs to not be boring.
With some of the marketplace items scheduled for launch in July and August, I'm hoping you'll feel quite differently. Thanks for staying on-board and believing -- one challenge after another -- we shall overcome all obstacles. That much I can promise you, based on the history of the team. Believe it or not, we have overcome literally hundreds of challenges thus far, many of which seemed impossible to solve at first glance. But the team (employees, success coaches and die hard citizens) do not lay down and die - they just keep trying solutions as rapidly as possible until one of them sticks. We shall overcome.

I think for a suggestion immediately, it has got to be the market - I know this is not a new idea - and that market changes are coming soon - however maybe to reinforce that - this is an economy - if you could get the market to work where sellers would be able to cash - out their profits in good time - so they can re-invest - I think it would take off - then we could provide new products not just second-hand stuff lying around the house - if this worked I think it would benefit the site in a good way - maybe it's on the way - anyway my immediate two-pennies worth - best to everyone

Hi JC, Empowr Team and Empowr ManagementI have found alot of people on empowr use Paypal, and in saying this alot of people do not understand that to validate with empowr, they need a validated account with paypal, meaning they need to connect a credit card and bank account with Paypal to use Paypal to validate for empowr. This issue has left many users confused and unable to optimize or validate their accounts and possibly leave. A small solution for this could be to have the Paypal customer phone number or email link avaliable for and so the success coaches don't get all the flack from their users about this issue. I have heard of suggestions been made to delete accounts and start over, when a simple phone call to paypal could rectify this, save users accounts and help people trust empowr.Also paypal has limits and spike securities for deposits and this could limit paypal users from getting monies out, some accounts have been locked for 180 days, many users choose to blame empowr for this where infact it is paypal, but having these small warnings (after a bit of research) would most definatly build trust between us all and limit those who choose to spread rumors.

Hi Mihaela Oancea
I have been helping people on empowr set up and verify or explain they need verified paypal accounts for nearly 6 months now on empowr, doing this has saved many accounts from being deleted, if there wasn't a need why am I answering peoples issues with this daily. All a success coach replies to these people is there must be a problem in the platform and you need to delete your account and start over.
It can not be empowr if it is happening to some people and not others. I have found it is an unverified paypal account. Empowr now knowing this can implement it somewhere as a warning or inform success coaches, this would avoid people leaving because they have had to delete their existing account.
And to answer your comment about people should know this, not everybody has a paypal account before this platform, not everybody here is an internet marketer, some people are just simpletons trying to understand the internet market world for example my mother who dropped out of empowr (I am trying to convince her to come back). Also having an account with paypal, you can still use money to transfer funds in paypal with an unverified account, but you can not set up preapproved payments without your paypal being verified and to validate empowr with paypal you are setting up preapproved payments. I am not a success coach but I do not ask, answer or make comments blindly, I really love to research, so if I have commented about something, I believe whole heartedly that there is a need for the issue to save empowr.

I am a member of this community since July 2013. One thing that I would like to suggest to the Empowr Team is to please take care of your faithful members. Of course an evaluation must be made if the member is doing well - -- does she/he contribute to the welfare of the community? If so, then give them reward for the span of time that she works for the community. This strategy will encourage a member to be more faithful and work hard for the good of this community. It is not easy to work for more than 3 years --- investing your time and effort and of course money from your pocket without receiving anything in return. Let us do the "give and take policy" and this community will progress. Thank you very much. May God bless us all.

Jen, I agree completely -- this has been a labor of love for many faithful members-- and it would be more than amazing to take care of them in special ways.
Not to spill the beans on the table too prematurely but we have been looking into rules and laws -- in order to give company (shares) to loyal citizens. Don't want to spoil any future news, but it's looking likely that we'll be able to do that! Shares are how employees of tech startups become millionaires... why not our best citizens too?

To attract a number of citizens to build public empowr and permanent employment here. The most important thing we have to help them understand the good nature of empowr from the beginning they sign up to empowr. So the propaganda to help them understand the nature of empowr is very important. Because, I noticed the citizens to empowr they simply understand this is a making money site.

So, in addition to helping them make money, we must encourage them to learn about the core values ​​of empowr by creating features that make them feel interested in learning about empowr. And every time they understand correctly the nature of a problem by answering correctly empowr the multiple-choice questions. We will reward them with a certain amount in order to motivate them to continue learning.

When they understand the nature of empowr, they will see empowr as part of their lives. And I'm sure that their relatives, their friends will also come with empowr through their referrals.

Tam, I couldn't agree more. In fact, that's how I got involved in posting blogs again - -it was breaking my heart to see all these newbies show up that saw empowr as nothing more than a Get Rich Quick scheme.
If we could get people rich quickly, well, perhaps that would be OK -- but the reality is that we are all very busy doing the hard work of building an economy from the ground up -- nothing "quick" about it.
I love your idea of rewarding citizens for becoming knowledgeable. We already provide surge earnings to new citizens for watching the videos - as you suggest, why not add a little something if they successfully answer 2-3 multiple choice questions after the video?
What other ideas do you have, towards helping our new citizens to correctly learn what empowr is and is not?
Diagnosis is half the cure... I feel like you hit it on the head.

Agreed Eduardo. That's the only reason empowr has been able to survive and continue marching forward: Many people have joined hands together despite hardship, hard work, skepticism, and lack of capital.
Sometimes the simplest answers are at the core of the solution thanks EO.

It seems important to point out that it is up to empowr citizens to clean up the marketplace. As we do our work here, it is up to us to post things that have substance and could be helpful. Why am I even buying recipes that I can simply Google for? To show a good faith effort of participation. I have posted a few things, but my resources do not cover my expenses, and I have no wish to get in over my head, with expenses I know I will fail to honor. It's happened before, and my account was, and in ways, still is, all messed up. Each time I try to share the site with people, the first question is whether or not I have ever cashed out. Unfortunately, I have to say no, and keep on keeping on. I have a herd of people on standby, but they aren't going to be dedicated citizens if they don't have tangible resources to meet expenses, at the very least.

Agreed Sharon. Hopefully in the coming weeks and months, as bugs are fixed, new features are launched and many new citizens join, the platform will be at a point where your herd will show up to participate. Until then, we'll keep running as fast as we can on this end, I can promise you that.

Hi, JC. I think most of my ideas for the platform you are already addressing: allowing people to edit posts, like comments that people make, marketplace improvements, etc.

I'd also like to see commenting on posts not count toward limits for sharing. Likes, sure, but including the comments inhibits the "social" aspect of the platform. People will come for the economy and the entire platform, but if they feel that they are limited in their conversations, they will lose interest. I have found that, since the limits on posts were imposed, I have dwindled with my "addiction" to empowr. While I am still here every day, it just doesn't feel as interactive.

I also think there are a lot of good ideas in this thread and I agree with a lot of them. :-) By the way, OS/2 Warp Connect was FAR better than Windows. ;-) But it's the same as with Facebook vs MySpace, Google vs Yahoo vs MSN for search engines, Sony BETA vs VHS, Sony BluRay vs HDDVD (again, HDDVD was by far the better of the two, but Sony had the money to throw around and wasn't about to lose again like they did with BETA). I have used several of these new social media platforms that "pay" their users like Tsu and FutureNet, but empowr by far has the best platform and model. I look forward to the upcoming improvements!

Just a thought, please tell me if I am on the wrong pathBuilding economic wealth without selling out to the fortune 500

The biggest problem is we are building wealth from each other and we are all here because we have no wealth. Yes we have education and inspiration, but if the people who are us that is buying these services and products have no $$ to start with, we are just robbing each other.

I have been reading up on SMS.ac, FANBOX and EMPOWR and found that without Sony Empowr would have seized to exist before it was even thought of.Article: The company would be forced to shut down, as it had no money to secure an office.Coincidentally, that very same day -- only 3 hours after the notice from the city, the company received, in the mail, an unexpected check (for $20,000) from Sony Corporation -- paid in advance for advertising -- making it possible for the company to pay the deposit for an office ($19,975).

Maybe we should look at trickling that money down from these big advertisers, a lot of these company’s pay for the traffic or clicks. This could be of big value to us all here at empowr.My husband and myself were having a discussion about how empowr could generate funds and help people in real need today, nearly everything we could think of came from outside revenue being created along side of the empowr platform.Just a thought:Create an empowr Pay Per Click (PPC) or other system similar, where empowr citizens could create extra money along side the empowr platform, share that PPC revenue with empowr to build a stable and wealthy platform to cover costs of designing and rebuilding empowr.

How this would work, possible answers.Empowr to create an independent platform for advertising the big fish. This platform would offer PPC or some other advertising system.Empowr to implement this for users. empowr citizens who have paid fees or used the optimize option.Meaning if you haven’t paid your fees or paid to be optimized you are unable to use the PPC system. My husband even suggested using it at a bonus for meeting your quotas.Have the PPC system independent from the empowr platform itself so users who are using the PPC system can use these earning to pay fees or take out as profit. Cash in hand.Empowr to charge a small fee on using the PPC such as taking a percent of these earnings to keep this new PPC platform stable.We need to create money revenue from somewhere other than each other. The people who have the money are the big fish, we don’t need to be trapped by them, but they have the wealth.Please let me know if I am on the wrong track here??

Hi Johny . 1st I think share limit must be minimum thousand for a day . 2nd I did not got my matured cashout it is already 10 days . 3rd please add payout option which works well in every country . paypal works in some selected countries . thanks

If it was up to me, here is what I would do: 1. I would invite sellers like Amazon or Tesco and other profis in home delivery to join our marketplace. This would make it possible for the users to buy things through empowr that they normally buy anyway. Of course empowr would keep a margin for itself. This would create a really nice pool of income for the citizens. Being able to purchase groceries, electronics, books etc and also profit from others´ purchases would be something people cannot do on Facebook or Twitter.

2. I would believe a lot more in leadership developement and a bit less in democracy. The problem with democracy is that people often want what they don't need and don't want what they do need. Since job losses on a big scale can happen in a democracy, why are we believing so much in democracy then? Big successful companies have no elected presidents. They develop leaders and then they pass on the baton at the right time. Just think about Jack Welch and Jeffrey Immelt. I am not saying the two things necessarily exclude one another, but you see, even though we have an elected president you had to step in. Just because someone likes helping others and hence becomes an SC it does not mean he or she is capable of leading such a big organization. Just as the example of some politicians shows: even a "clown" can become popular, but being popular does not mean he or she is caplable of good decisions.

Well first empowr needs to change $20/$30/$50 signup to bonus because that is first thing people ask where is my money..By changing it to bonus people will know that they can make more in long run and get bot users out. That is a killer by it self saying get $20/$30/$50 to join when it should be bonus so people will know they have to work to get it. Then increasing the number of people you can get to join empowr and by making it a bonus instead of automatic. I love empowr and want to see it be here for years to come. I don't promote empowr to others to join because your only limited to 100 signups but if empowr would change it to bonus they would be taking the company out of the red at start when someone joins. Then focus on marketplace getting all of the items out of there before 2015 unless it is a blog item. But the main focus should be on getting the numbers higher on people joining and not seeing red but green on signup. Empowr is a real business and people know they have to wait upto a total of 120 days to get the $20 then you see alot not do anything because that is all they join for was the $20 by making it a bonus they will know there going to have to work to get it. If a company isn't profitable then you have no company.1st getting members 2nd marketplace, without people marketplace isn't no good. Like one company I am in for pass 17 years has over 16 million join it but now has almost 3 million people using its store daily = sales = profits. Sorry so long but main point is changing it from getting $20/30/50 to join to saying get a $20* bonus to join then only get so much of it each month base on your total sales like 3 percent of bonus a month depending on your sales. Then making it unlimited signups and putting bonus to where they see it showing 0/20 then 3/20 10/20 then 20/20 showing they got it per person but both parties has to be active.

well yes I do care about it, then I am on here 15 to 18 hours a day. Then I was told a few weeks ago I couldn't be a SC again because what I told the trainer which speaks very poor english and it had to do with Grand Jury Duty here in USA nothing to do with this site. Either case its there choice just think it was because I said I wanted to be the next President of Empowr and what I would do differently and M.R. didn't like that lol.

Just a few ideas.All the posts I ve read are interesting. Reading the posts I had the impression I was seeing the film "The meaning of life" by monty python (1rst part, with the small insurance company that starts a revolution and goes out to conquer the world until it reaches the end of the world and falls in space....)We need to protect empowr from outside investors and other dangers but we have to leave some paths for outsiders to find us and join. For instance the marketplace to be accessible for outsiders to buy, but not sell until they join.Steps to be taken for new subscriptions : Accept terms and conditions as well as read a FAQ sectionA training platform, parallel to this one before joining this one. A possibility to keep their earnings if they work and understand how empowr works and what is all about (maybe a basic test to be taken). Possibly a bonus sum for reaching the first level immediately available to cash out. A "capture page" , containing the principles and scope of empowr, advertized on some networks would not be a bad idea.Also a program like google adsense would be bring profits in empowr in order to extend the platform and bring revenues to the citizens. I also think that restriction to sharing discourages new members who generally try to achive a higher level as soon as possible.Finally a possibility for a citizen to lend or give some of his earnings to an other citizen would be also fine.I hope that my thoughts will help.

Hello Sabrina. I just read your message. Sorry for the delay of my answer.
"Do you mean a specific page that clearly lists all terms and conditions, plus a FAQ page with common questions or things that might be tripping up users?"
Yes this is exactly what I mean..
" Should this be aimed toward new users specifically?"
I think that terms and conditions should be read and signed from every member. FAQs may be aimed towards new users but should be also available to the rest of the citizens. You never know when someone might need to read something again...!
"While I think that this would be a great idea, a concern would definitely be: would that be a huge turn off to users?"
It will be definately a turn off to many users. I also think that these will be the kind of users that empowr doesn't need.
"Would this turn people away, knowing that they need to take a test before participating?"
I don't really think so. It depends on what brings them to empowr. The parallel training platform may be very user friendly with hints and tips. The goal of the test should cover the usability of the platform. A friendly survey after the test might also provide us with info for things that might be changed.
"A "capture page" , containing the principles and scope of empowr, advertized on some networks would not be a bad idea. Could you possibly elaborate on this?"
Users for any platform don't appear out of the blue. A page explaining our goals and how democracy works would be appealing to many users worldwide. A tick for understanding our principles as well as the understanding of democracy and their willingness to participate on the page would be very useful I think. (Prior to the registration page)
"Finally a possibility for a citizen to lend or give some of his earnings to an other citizen would be also fine. While this could definiitely be tricky (I'm just thinking about how empowr would hold users accountable, as lending is a messy thing). But I like where this idea could go...."
I had second thoughts on this matter and I am sure that lending would create a great deal of problems for fraud etc. Giving away some of the profits to help those in need, is something that we should encourage.
I hope this explains my thoughts on this matters. I have plenty of other ideas that I am willing to discuss anytime.

My idea is an old one but a tried and true reality for most companies, when you are joining a new company the expectations are clearly defined. We need better documentation and training for each person joining so that they are aware. Yes you need the legal documentation but you also need it laid out. So my idea is to use the people you have to lay out the documentation, not employees but empowr citizens. Give them extra shares for their partiicipation in writing or being on a committee to write the introduction and step-by-step plan to succeed in Empowr based on the changes in the platform. Since I started in March there have been many changes and everyone will need to go through some type of training as the old way of doing business is no longer acceptable. This will stop the turnover rate and every time there is a change thorough documentation and training prior to the change will help the turnover rate also.

Hi JC, You have asked us our ideas but how do I get satisfied that you glanced my idea??? If you could involve in a healthier discussion with genuine contents and just a word of appreciation for even useless thoughts would satisfy any of the citizens who spent their time investing on this blog.

Can I say something? You may like it or not but I need your opinion on this.

>> The older BFO was better than COT. When compared, in BFO citizens used to post valuable contents as posts that could attract hundreds of other citizens and that posts would be shared with their fans and so forth..so we get credit according to the quality of post but in COT we request others to like back to earn...that is the real situation now and that is where our trust stands (I am getting 50-60 shares out of 6000+ COTS). Now can you like a post with 1,2,3,4 as contents or even good and morning separately to get likes? This is just a curse. But Trust Meter works great and if that could be mingled with some sort, it would be awesome. Posts can be limited as of now and only posts with valuable content would earn for anybody.

>> There should be a percentage of earning from our referrals and of course not from that citizens but should be from empowr's side as a reward. This would bring us a lot of citizens. The signup bonus should be immediately cashed out without any maturation, may be as they reach at least orange star level. That does not need to be a huge amount. This would influence them to work further and achieve higher levels to earn more and more.

>> Nowadays all are computer geeks and nobody joins empowr without any knowledge and they would learn to sell at least blogs so as to earn so there should not be any sponsoring as such. Bidding must be regulated. Once the sale has been closed, the ad must be removed from profile. There should be no dispute with blogs "because the client is unaware of the system" as a reason. SCs should ensure that the client is selling valuable one (I too admit of selling a couple of invaluable but when I realized and asked for help to delete them and could not)

>> An interactive demo platform for new users (with SC support) to get used to so that they never mess up with the original platform.

>> Removal of fake trusts....How can we trust a sale of a person/actual person when he/she is not posting his/her own photo and name? Accounts must be validated with a nation ID and the photo must be portrayed as this gives credibility to him and trust to others.

>> To get everybody involved in this program, we need "INSTANT CHAT & CALL" as other social medias. So that we can contact anybody anytime and this will increase the trust as well. A separate button for SC as well.

>> STATS must be maintained as such, total, active, online citizens and new signups and may be the stats of the total funds and earnings for empowr as well, such as how much have been spent on surge, cash out and all, making empowr more transparent.

>> FORUM for discussion...where any citizen can query anything and get answers from any active SCs immediately without waiting for a whole day. Best answer could fetch an SC some reward points towards earning as well.

>> PPC ads from, may be small farms/industry of our own customers or from any online medias as such...could give additional profit for all citizens.

>> 90 days maturity is the major drawback as every citizens deal with and thereby quit. We cannot avoid as empowr economy is based on that but could adjust to some extent as a small % could be retained for 3 months maturation for actual cashout and that cannot be used for up-gradation or any such activity.

>> Limitation in posts would be of help but not restricted shares. Empowr can use captcha for every profile in running letters that could be impossible for a bot to pick up.

EMPOWR MUST NOT BE BASED ON IMPOSITION OF MARKETPLACE OR RESTRICTION OF SHARESbecause EMPOWR RELIES ON ITS MARKETPLACE AND NETWORK TRAFFIC

Many thanks for your comments -- these, as well as your earlier ones. I appreciate how much you care, as evidenced by the time you took to write your comments.

I actually did respond to your earlier comment, but then I deleted it because I wasn't sure if my honestly and direct communication would be appreciated.

But since you ask, I'll answer here. To be clear, I do not mean to be disrespectful with my comments, below, and as said earlier, I'm really glad that you care and are taking the time to leave these comments. Regan, many of your comments and ideas seem to suffer from a lack of understanding about the concept of limited resources. You want direct and instant chat with your SC or someone from empowr? Do some basic math on what something like that would take. What do you think the revenue of empowr (or any social media company) is, on a per user basis? Even the largest social media companies (Facebook) -- that make the most revenue per user, make less than $1 per user / month -- and they do not return a single penny to users.
I used that point as an example of many of some your non-actionable ideas. Many of your ideas are not very relevant to this specific venture, because you assume unbounded resources. Another example is simply suggesting more or earlier cash outs -- as if no one thought of that before or the cash would just fall out of the sky because, well, you came up with the idea. Look, I know empowr is new for you; but if you put yourself in our shoes: people coming up with ideas like that ("More cash outs would be a good idea"), as if no one else ever thought of that, well, that's nothing new for us to see. But when they do it with a sense of arrogance -- like their idea just fell out of the universe exclusively into their hands, and we should all stop what we're doing to serve the community, and roll out the red carpet for them and their immaculate intelligence and once-in-a-lifetime idea, well, to be honest, our eyes can't help but roll a bit.
While I'm being transparent, let me add that sometimes you're talking down to the SCs - most of which are giving quite a lot, selflessly, to this mission. When someone shows that sort of arrogance (even if it was not intended) I don't feel like it's worth taking (incredibly limited) time away from work and family to respond to.
Again, I'm only responding now -- and with this level of honesty and directness, out of respect to you because you have asked multiple times why I am not responding -- so that you can have a better idea of why it seems better for me to just refrain from responding to many your comments. Your better ideas have of course been noted.
Again, I appreciate that you care enough to speak up, I really do. Responding to your comment that "this should be a discussion and I should be responding to your comments: I hardly get a chance to write these blog posts, much less respond to comments -- given that I do work a 16 hour job like the other empowr employees do -- and these blogging hours are on top of that 16 hours. Again, it's clear that you're not quite understanding the limited resources concept, and therefore none of this will add up to your expectations and I apologize for that.
By the way, faecbook has even tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue: Try talking to someone there -- or at any other social media company -- and see what level of "discussion" as you put it -- will happen. Nada. Zilch. You know why? Not because they don't care, but because of the math: One of me, many thousands of citizens. (and this is not even my job, as explained). How exactly do you expect a "discussion"? Again, you're not doing the math, I would submit for your kind consideration.
Thanks again and I wish we had more time, as you (and the others that clearly believe enough to invest all this time) truly deserve nothing but the best.

Thank you so much JC for writing as much as I wrote...lol.... But I can proudly say that empowr has got good hands... I usually go through the comments section and the original post at least a couple of times a day to see how everyone reacted to other's ideas but it was something different from yesterday onwards that I could see a whole lot of appreciation and feedback from JC as well. Of course this will motivate those users to get into much more deeper in analysing on various topics in future as well. I too got satisfied that my ideas also were taken into consideration but may be of not resourceful and those ideas seems irrelevant and I am sure this will inspire me to learn more and more to understand to get involved in future activities as well. Thank you so much for your reply and eagerly awaiting for the next post.

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